Bildquelle: Hyperion
Lawrence in the Fallfrom Mattew Farina
with Illustrations from Doug Salati
48 pages
frist published 09.April 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4847-8058-9
Hyperion
15,99€
An emotional autumn and natural history
A father-son story
A story about a Schoolwork and collecting
for children +3 years
"Bring something with you,
what you collect,
and provides it
to the others!"
This is the beginning of the story of the little fox Lawrence, who is very frightened by this homework, because he does not collect anything. He has no collection. Very different from his classmates. The pig collects playing cards, the cat coins, the duck silk ribbons, the sheep combs and the turtle marbles.Lawrence is terribly sad and somehow he is also uncomfortable that everyone is collecting something, except him. At home, he confides in his father and he even has an idea how they can solve the problem. The next day they go to the forest. The autumnal mood can be felt everywhere. Surely you will find a collection in the forest, because there is a lot to discover there. In the riverbed they discover stones. A stone collection would certainly be something beautiful, but they have to realize that you can't get to them. They wander on, and on, but they do not find anything to collect. And then the weather suddenly turns around. Rain and storm came, the forest floor softened, branches blocked the way and made it difficult for Lawrence to follow his father. Worse still, he even lost it. As the rain slowly subsided, the little fox found itself in a clearing. No trace of his dad. He heard the whisper of the wind in the trees and felt the nature around him particularly intensely. And then something wonderful happened. A leaf floated down to him. For some it may have been just an ordinary leaf, but for Lawrence it was almost like a little treasure. He admired the yellow-red colored maple leaf with its fine tips. That he was actually looking for his father, he had completely forgotten because of all the fascination for the beautiful leaf. Only when he came to him did he realize how fascinated he was by the experience of nature. Had the tree blown this leaf to him? Lawrence showed his father a group of trees and shouted a cheerful "hello" to them and again leaves floated down. This time they were yellower and their tips rounder. From his father he learned that they were oak leaves and again there was this fascination for the beautiful leaf. The trees and their different leaves had done it to the little fox. He looked up at them, always discovered new shapes and colors of the leaves that the trees gave him, and he collected one leaf more beautifully than the other. He got to know the birches, the beeches, willows, poplars and the wild wooden apple. When they came home in the evening, his whole basket was full of beautiful colorful autumn leaves. A real collection. Each leaf was a small treasure for Lawrence. Each was a little different and beautiful in its own right, as his classmates at school saw it, who enjoyed the sight the next day together with the little fox and listened to Lawrence report on his forest adventure. What's more, everyone was allowed to choose a leaf. He gave away all his leaf treasures, because he knew where to find new ones. In a very sensitive way, Matthew Farina tells a story that makes the experience of nature clearly felt. With his sensitive narrative, he conveys to his little readers the fascination for the reading room forest, autumn and especially the trees, which Lawrence perceives very intensely. For him, every leaf is a great gift from the respective tree, to which he even thanks for it. Looking up into the treetop, feeling the wind, watching the leaves fall down, that inspires the little one and through the very expressive drawings of the illustrator Doug Salati we can experience this enthusiasm very consciously and feel it ourselves. Thus, this picture book is a book that not only tells a beautiful, intense autumn story but also sensitizes to the forest habitat. At the end of the book, the children get to know some leaves and seeds. For example.B the leaves of maple, ginko, birch, plane tree, mountain ash, chestnut and willow. Lawrence story inspired to go into the forest again, collect leaves and maybe make something out of them. Certainly, the children will see the trees from a different, perhaps new perspective on the next walk in the forest. Sometimes not only with the eyes straight ahead or on the ground but like Hans Guck in the air, the head in the neck, the eyes upwards.
